Andy has thoughts not very far from mine.
What I'd do...
1. Let Torg itself lapse. The new game of tyrants versus the multiverse would be a fresh start with its own rules and look.
2. No firm ideas what I'd do for rules. For the sake of example here I'm getting FATE-ish, but that's just because it's mentally handy for me. Cosm ratings get attributes on the same scale as PCs, plus aspects for the customizing role of cosm laws. Mechanics for the high end include changing the laws, which is hard if you don't have cosmological-scale resources, but is definitely there to be done. (Rules that can be easily handled in a game run via phone messaging would be nice.)
3. There is no fixed world map of which invader goes where. There's maybe four or five fully fleshed-out invaders and their home cosms, and a toolkit for building more.
4. There is a three-phase standard campaign framework: survival in the face of invasion, reaching out to other strongholds, and then globe (and cosm)-hopping in search of bigger better trouble. Phase 1 advice draws on games like Aftermath and d20 Gamma World, to help GMs and players work out fun terrible things to do to their starting community. Phase 2 has a scale of hundreds to a thousand or few miles across. In Phase 3, the sky is not the limit. Advice also covers sensible alternatives like starting right off with access to securable transportation, ramping the curve of rising threat up and down, and like that.
5. There's some kind of support framework for player journals, swapping campaign bits, and (via micro-portals that operate within the probability swarm of diverging and reconverging timelines that is a cosm) even crossover-between-group adventures.
6. The game needs a variety of endgame McGuffins. (I'm thinking here of how Talisman play got more interesting when they went from having just the Crown of Command as a final goodie to a randomized mysterious one out of six.) Different would-be High Lords should be up to different kinds of things.
And that's it for the moment.
- RPGs: Torg Redux
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bruceb- July 22nd, 2008
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...the irony here being this is largely what several of us pitched to Scott as a relaunch for Torg "2.0" (for lack of a better term), which he promptly shot down, citing the piles upon piles of crap like the Living Land sourcebook which filled the warehouse.
So, this would be, like, 1998? 99?
Sigh.
So, this would be, like, 1998? 99?
Sigh.
This is me being shocked and surprised beyond all possible comprehension.
No, wait, it isn't.
No, wait, it isn't.
That sounds like a great way to do it. The phases thing also reminds me of the world burner for Burning Empires (although instead of phases of scale it would be phases of invasion). Simplified rules and Cosm toolkits sound like my cups of tea.
There's also what Malcolm Craig has pitched for Hot War and some of what little I've read from Shock!: Social Science Fiction, in there, at least in passing - configurable to individual campaigns as far as the framework goes. Or, if you prefer, campaign character and theme *as* character.
It's a fine idea, I think. Good to see some productive thought coming out of the disaster here, and especially the trainwreck that's the RPG.Net thread.
It's a fine idea, I think. Good to see some productive thought coming out of the disaster here, and especially the trainwreck that's the RPG.Net thread.
So, on a somewhat ill-advised outing with Weds, I mentioned, somewhat casually, "so, if we win the lottery, I'm going to buy all the assets of a failing RPG company, almost certainly paying more than they're worth and having essentially no chance of recouping the investment. Is that okay?"
She said "well, sure. Of course."
This is one reason I married her.
She said "well, sure. Of course."
This is one reason I married her.
As a fan and someone trying to revive one of the greats…
You wouldn't happen to know who presently has the rights to Nexus: the Infinite City, would you? I've tried several avenues and haven't been able to find an answer or contact information.
Thanks!
You wouldn't happen to know who presently has the rights to Nexus: the Infinite City, would you? I've tried several avenues and haven't been able to find an answer or contact information.
Thanks!
Sure. The answer is: Jose Garcia owns the rights, and the last I heard (several years ago now), he was teaching skiing at some resort in Switzerland and not answering questions about selling rights or anything else gaming-related.
Personally, with a lot of similar questions, my attitude is 'rip off the serial numbers and do your own similar thing.'
I mean, in Nexus' case, you already have vaguely similar pre-existing things, like the Grimjack comic (at least I THINK Grimjack came out before the game).
A lot less fuss, and then you can adjust things you found a bit clunky.
I mean, in Nexus' case, you already have vaguely similar pre-existing things, like the Grimjack comic (at least I THINK Grimjack came out before the game).
A lot less fuss, and then you can adjust things you found a bit clunky.
My fanboyishness includes the setting. Something alternate - something that I created myself, especially - would feel cheap in comparison.
I would be sad for the loss of the exploding dice mechanic that made getting a Glory roll (and then trying to come up with some feasible justification why a Research roll should warrant awe of the part of some Ord audience)and I'm not sure how you'd replicate that effect in FATE. And the card play was too much fun for me to wholly embrace abandoning the system (though to be sure it needed some serious work).
However your suggestions 3, 5 and 6 are very, very good ideas. And being a fan of the levels idea in Unknown Armies and an absolute devotee of Burning Empires' rigid framework, your idea 2 is clearly the One Awesome Thing that my three or four years of exclusive Torg play was clearly missing. I wish you'd said all this, like, 12 or 13 years ago...
However your suggestions 3, 5 and 6 are very, very good ideas. And being a fan of the levels idea in Unknown Armies and an absolute devotee of Burning Empires' rigid framework, your idea 2 is clearly the One Awesome Thing that my three or four years of exclusive Torg play was clearly missing. I wish you'd said all this, like, 12 or 13 years ago...
You're entirely right about exploding rolls - they're definitely part of the fun. Glad you like the other stuff, though. :)
A good, fun dice mechanic will help paper over a lot of cracks in a system (glass ninja, I'm looking at you), and the sweet combination of exploding dice, possibility rerolls and the cards was a potent brew...
...but looking at it as I type that, that's a hell of a lot of different systems to handle, and that's before you even get to multiple damage tracks, the mechanics for the reality cosmology and about thirty different magic and incompatible magic/psionic systems! I guess it's no wonder that some of our players never really came to grips with the game mechanics. Even now, our in-joke catchphrase for being stumped by mechanics is to whimper helplessly "What's a stymie?"
So yeah, I don't know what I would be happy to lose, but there's no denying the game could do with some major streamlining.
...but looking at it as I type that, that's a hell of a lot of different systems to handle, and that's before you even get to multiple damage tracks, the mechanics for the reality cosmology and about thirty different magic and incompatible magic/psionic systems! I guess it's no wonder that some of our players never really came to grips with the game mechanics. Even now, our in-joke catchphrase for being stumped by mechanics is to whimper helplessly "What's a stymie?"
So yeah, I don't know what I would be happy to lose, but there's no denying the game could do with some major streamlining.
2008-07-22 05:11 pm (UTC)